A strict and prissy teacher with serious learning
rules could stress learners in learning English but it does not mean that a
classroom with no rules could make ESL learners feel free to learn English
effectively. An ideal classroom that could make ESL learners more interested in
learning English is where inspirational lessons combined with some serious
rules are given by a friendly and passionate teacher. Let’s find out how to
combine inspirational lesson with serious learning rules in ESL classroom.
v What is an inspirational lesson in English classroom?
ü friendly English language learning environment
+ Teachers give students chances to practice English
skills with their friends and attend some useful and exciting activities like
games, teamwork, role-play, etc
+ Students feel free to raise their ideas and discuss
about the lesson in English with other students and their teachers.
ü ESL learners are impressed with the lecture and
activities celebrated by teachers
+ No signals of being sleepy from both teachers and
students
+ Students look happy and eager for the lesson
ü ESL teachers love their students and find every lesson
they give their students an inspiring and motivating one
+ Teachers are keen on learning English with students,
instead of being bored by their students’ attitude
+ Enthusiastic learning attitude of students
encourages teacher to give better and more effective lessons.
v How to give student inspirational lesson?
+ Teachers should be friendly to students, listen to
students’ voice and feelings, ask them after every lesson to check how they
understand the lesson, how they assess the quality of the lesson, ask them if
they like the lesson or if the teacher has given the lesson with too slow or
too quick speed to adjust better for the further lessons.
+ Teachers should combine explaining English theories
with organizing some learning activities or by choosing the easiest teaching
method that could make students understand the lesson.
For example: In order to help students get the meaning
of the word “cottage”, there are no
more effective ways than showing them the picture of the real cottage.
- To make students understand the usage of adverbs of
frequency in a sentence, it is necessary to make examples first.
- To help students remember and understand the
dialogue of buying things at a supermarket, students need encouraging to make a
real buying situation with their partners in front of the class.
v Should an inspirational lesson be combined with
serious learning rules to ESL learners in English classroom?
- Yes, of course
ü The benefit of an inspirational lesson
+ Make students get inspired and motivated in the
lesson
+ Give students real passion and hobby to learn
English
ü Is an inspirational lesson is enough for an ESL
leaners?
+ It is not enough.
+ Based on my own experiences and practical teaching
experiences, practices makes perfect, if students only learn English at
classroom and forget to learn it at home, they will make no real improvements
and achievements.
+ It is true that a lot of my students are very
enthusiastic ESL learners at school, but lazy ones at home. They attend only two
classes of 02 hours/ lesson every week at my classroom and then they seldom
learn English at home.
+ It is clear that 02-04 hours for learning a language
in classroom every week is never enough for anyone who wants to master a language
despite how easy it is!
The fact is that English is easy for the hard-working
students to master, and completely difficult for the lazy ones!
Ø The result is that they love English, but
their laziness put them down!
Ø Even though they have learned English for
a long time of years, they get no improvements – such a disappointed situation!
- That’s why I decided to make some changes by setting
some serious rules:
+ Students are required to do homework. If they do not
complete it, they are not allowed to learn the new lesson, they need to
complete the homework, then I check and they can start a new lesson.
+ Students are not allowed to make gossip things or
tell jokes too much at class. Sometimes I see that an inspirational lesson
often goes with freedom in which students make noise a lot – not speaking
English – but telling a lot in their mother tongue and this is not good. This
ignores them from learning and makes them forget things easily.
+ Some students prove themselves to be good learners,
but the truth is different. Those students often make mistakes in doing
exercises or completing termly test.
It is good to believe in students’ ability. But
everything needs a limitation. We should check them carefully to realize their
strengths and weaknesses, then give them contributing advice.
- Besides inspirational lesson and serious learning
rules, students need encouraging to practice English in out-door environments
like English clubs, picnics having attendance of English native speakers (Theory is different from practice, or we
cannot understand theory if do not use it in real situation). My students are
shy at first, but then they gradually get more confident. They learn to speak
one by one sentence after every picnic and they try to be better.
Learning English is a long-term process! Learn it every
day, not only in classrooms!
In order to do this, teachers should be friendly, but
serious to their students to make sure they also actively learn English at home
and take initiatives to attend English learning activities outside classrooms.
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